Take Note, Indie Filmmakers: Why Indiegogo Is at the Head of the Crowdfunding Class (Q & A)

At a recent panel in Los Angeles, Marc Hofstatter of Indiegogo was joined by campaign producer Ray Brown ("The Bounce Back") to discuss the ins-and-outs of the company, and what makes a successful campaign -- in other words, sage wisdom for any indie filmmaker looking to crowdfund.

Indiegogo: Flexible funding is our most popular choice. If someone is trying to raise $100,000 and they only raise $95,000, coming up $5,000 short after a 30-day campaign, did they really fail? In our minds, they didn't, and we give them the option to walk away with that $95k and get that $5k somewhere else. In independent film, you're going to find money from other sources. If you can get that close [to your goal], you are a success.

Ray Brown: We set a goal of $500,000 on the $1.5 million budget and we
raised over $638,000. Because the campaign was successful, a lot of people
started reaching out to invest. There are brands reaching out to be part of it.
As far as distribution we've had companies reach out for that too because of
his fan base around the world. We created a stretch code, which was basically
if we get more money we can get it in more theaters, we can do more with the
distribution.

On marketing campaigns and engaging your audience:

Indiegogo: Even if you don't reach your goal, you're still getting incoming phone calls. The campaign offers pre-awareness, it's free marketing, it proves to your crowd, to your audience and your market that you have value and that your project has value, and that it's worth continuing on... The crowdfundingcampaign is not just about the money: it's about the fan. It's a good marketing tool because you're keeping fans engaged. You don't even need to put out a trailer. You're keeping people involved in the whole process.

Ray Brown: He's got a crazy female fan base (nothing against females!) who were on the campaign site every day. We created a blog and a "Bounce
Back" Twitter where they could communicate on both Indiegogo and on the
blog. They created a group called "The Bounce Back" Sister Wives.
They communicated all day so I didn't have to work as hard but I had to stay
engaged with them and he had to stay engaged. There were over 5,000 comments
total. I couldn't respond to all of them but fans started to respond for me. We
also did live chats, so they felt like it was real.

On controversies surrounding celebrity campaigns:

Indiegogo: Everybody should have the opportunity to crowdfund. Whether it's Zach Braff, Shemar Moore or James Franco, it's about that engagement. It's not just about a celebrity panhandling money. It's about the project and the audience's reaction to it.

Ray Brown: Shemar was thinking about financing it himself,
which you're not supposed to do... He explained to fans that it was less about the money, since
he could fund it, and more about engaging with them and taking that to
Hollywood. Shemar let them know, it's not about me taking the money, it's about
you supporting something I think you might enjoy.

Why choose Indiegogo over Kickstarter:

Indiegogo: There's no screening process. We don't tell our campaigners whether or not
their project is good. That's not our job. It defeats the purpose of crowdfunding.
It's up to the crowd to decide. You have to find your audience and crowdfunding
allows that.We have a Happiness Team in San Francisco, about
a dozen people who take your emails, your calls and your concerns and walk you
through the process. We have an in-house PR team who pushes out campaigns. We
have 7,000 campaigns running at any given time, so we make our best efforts to
be there for our campaigners because their success is [also] ours.

Ray Brown: We created this whole plan to go to Kickstarter. Kickstarter
felt more corporate to us because if we didn't make it, we would look bad. We
didn't want to put Shemar out there like that. So we went to Indiegogo. As soon
as we moved over and the campaign started to move, Indiegogo reached out to us
to help along the process.

Indiegogo: The Gogofactor is a proprietary algorithm. It levels the playing field and encourages you to be successful campaigner. If
you are a $5 million celebrity-driven campaign but you're doing nothing to
promote it and on the other hand you have a $15,000 short film or film campaign
and you're busting your hump, the Gogofactor
will push for you. If you want to be on the front page or on a newsletter,
everyone has the same exact opportunity: it all comes down to what you're doing
to promote your campaign and how quickly you're contributing. The harder you're pushing to share and get
contributors, the more the algorithm will back you. The algorithm
will allow it to pop up on the front page, the newsletter, and in every single
section of the site.